Au revoir 2012. Bonjour 2013!

Hi, been missing in action for awhile. 2012 is going to end soon and I wish to post an article before the end of 31 December 2012. Just a brief update for the past few months:

1)  I went some cities in Europe for a holiday avec ma bonne amie, KJL. It was fun! I had an opportunity to practise speaking french during a day trip in Florence with a french family and during my week long stay in Paris. I was soooo happy even my french ain't fantastic. Good news was, the french family and the ppl I met in Paris understood my poor french, and responded back accordingly. J'aime français!   And my friend said that I am 'best' in asking for the directions to the toilet!!!!! 'Il y a des toilettes? Tourner premiere gauche or droite?' Isn't this the most important thing one need to know? hahaha... I was given the golden advice from a french librarian back in the school I am taking french lessons from. Always remember: 'Bonjour, excusez-moi, pardon, merci, désolé, s'il vous plaît...' You bet these are really useful. Below are some of the pics I took during my trip.

 

Paris, macarons de Laduree, foie gras (ma favorite)  et CBO burger

 Who can refuse them even if you are on diet? Missing lobster risotto from Florence, only 20 euros. There is no need to share too. We didn't. Hahaha... Had it twice during our three days in Florence. Amazingly delicious, c'est magnifique! 

2) I passed my DELF A2 exam!! Hooray!!! Need to work hard on my oral presentation.  But good thing is, my understanding of French improved based on the results. I am more motivated to continue learning french. Parler français pour moi, s'il vous plaît.

3) I made osmanthus flower jello. 

Just buy any pre-mix konnyaku jelly powder and dried osmanthus flower. You can get them from Phoon Huat. Follow the instructions on the pre-mix box. As I am required to add 500ml of water to the jelly powder, I add only 1 tablespoon of dried osmanthus flower. 

4) I made shortbread butter cookies again. This time round I bought dogbone cookie cutter. I'm loving my cookies cutters. Recipe can be found under cookies category, look out for christmas shortbread cookies (or click here).

5) I baked carrot cake again and tried my hands on leveling the cake. I think I improved abit. I think only.  This CC is meant for another good friend of mine who requested for it. I will continue to work hard on beautifying the cake especially on spreading the frosting on the sides of the cake. Gonna get a cake turntable soon. Maybe it will help. For recipe, please click here.

Happy New Year! I wish everyone great health, live life to the fullest and may 2013 be a even better year for all of us. :) A bientôt!! 

Garlic Bread Toast

Garlic bread. My favourite garlic bread is by Pizza Hut. I still think they serve the best GB in town. For the food or desserts I enjoy eating, I will attempt to prepare them myself. Not everything, depending on the level of difficulty. I surfed and read GB recipes, everyone (at least 99%, if not 100% - 1% belongs to the garlic haters...hehehe) says it is easy. And yes, I'm convinced. So, I got down to prepare the garlic butter spread. I adapted the recipe from simply recipes. In fact, most of the recipes similar. It is hard to go wrong on this one!! Imagine the cost savings when you prepare them on your own. :P

Spread the bread with garlic butter.

Toast them in the oven for 8mins in 175 deg celsius. Voila! It's that easy and very 'garlicky'. Bon Appetit!!! :)

Bacon wrapped scallops et enoki

Lately, I am a little 'obssessed' with bacon wrapped food. I started with bacon wrapped enoki. They looked unappetizing but they tasted good. So I tried again with enoki plus teriyaki scallops. Quick and easy, it is hard to fail with these bacon wrapped finger-food.

I used the recipe from Rachael Ray but I omitted the water chestnuts and pickled ginger. So, if you are having a little party and needs a quick fix, try this. :)

Tatsuya: C'est très bon restaurant

Ma deuxième fois visite pour Tatsuya restaurant de Japonaise. Les sashimi sont très frais et très très délicieux. Mon amie, M et moi les a aimés. Chaque bouchée est délicieux! Magnifique et superbe! C'est vrai. Mon préféré étais Otoro sushi!!! Si vous voulez avoir diner dans ce restaurant, telephoner pour une réservation avant vous visitez, s'il vous plaît. Parce que il est très populaire à Singapour. Je vais certainement y retourner.

 

Salmon sashimi (S$25), Otoro sushi (S$30) et Amaebi sushi (S$20)

Kani karaage (S$18)

Tenzaru soba (S$18)

Macha et black sesame ice cream (S$6)

 Address: 22 Scotts Road 228221, Goodwood Park Hotel
 Tel: 6887 4598, 6737 1160

Opening hours: Daily

12pm-3pm , 6.30pm -11pm

Roasted Bacon wrapped enoki

I attended a gathering at a friend's house some time back and I was treated to a finger-food snack prepared by my friend's mother. Bacon wrapped enoki. I fell in love since. I always say this dish that dish is fairly easy to prepare. I was and am serious when I indicated 'fairly easy'. I got down to prepare this finger-food snacks on a warm sunday.

Key ingredients: Streaky bacons, golden mmushroom/enoki.

Look at these odd shaped bacon wraps. Ugly-looking but they are yummylicious.

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of enoki
- 4 slices of streaky bacon, cut into half

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425°F/ 218°C. Cut the ends of enoki, and wash them, drain the water away.
2. Place the enoki on the bacon and roll it. Pierce through the wooden skewer or toothpick.
3. Bake the enoki bundles for 15mins or until the bacon is browned and crisp. Drain the bundles on paper towels and remove  from the skewers. You can drizzle abit of terriyaki sauce on the enoki bundle. Next, eat them. :)

Ddeokbokki

Korean cuisine is one of my favourite cuisines. Visited South Korean twice in the last two yrs always leave me wanting for more. The food, the skincare, clothes and accessories... I like the korean rice cakes (ddeokbokki) and I know it can be prepared at home without having to pay for more in restaurants. I bought a pack of rice cakes, a pack of instant ddeokbokki sauce from a neighbourhood supermarket.

Ingredients:
350g of rice cakes
200cc of water
5 fresh prawns, shelled (optional)
1 pack of instant ddeokbokki sauce
1 small yellow onion, sliced
cooking oil

** you can add other fillings like fish cakes, instant noodles, cabbage etc... it's your choice, really. :)

1) Saute the onion until softened, add the water
2) Add the rice cakes to the water to soften them,
3) Add the instant sauce and stir into the rice cakes. Let it boil for another 3 mins. Ready to serve.

I find that the longer you 'soaked' the rice cakes into the gravy, the better they taste. Bon Appetit!

Baked terriyaki salmon with angel hair pasta in garlic sauce

Need to fix my own dinner again...so went surfing the internet for interesting recipes after checking out what ingredients I have on hand. My dinner must be healthy and not too difficult to prepare. Most importantly, I don't wish to mess up my mum's kitchen. Key ingredients: angel hair pasta, terriyaki sauce. Thanks to internet/goggle, I decided on angel hair pasta in garlic sauce and baked terriyaki salmon. Simple, healthy and appetising looking ( in my eyes)... hehehe... Click here for preparation of angel hair pasta in garlic sauce. The garlic sauce is awesome! Before I prepared it, the reviews have already given me alot of reassurance. Definitely a keeper. For the baked salmon, i first removed the skin because I found it rather yucky. For proper guide on preparing baked terriyaki salmon, please click here. Am gonna try pan-fried terriyaki fish the next time round, terriyaki chicken too when I am well. Moral of the story: Don't be sick, you will miss all the good food. *cough cough*

Bon Appetit!

Japanese Curry

Made japanese curry again. This time round, I used lean pork because I was coughing quite badly, hence omitted chicken. Everyone says (at least for my family and friends) when you are having a cough, you must avoid eating chicken as it will aggravate your cough. An easy dish ( difficult to fail) to prepare and can be filling to the stomach with a bowl of rice or maybe, two. I wanted my jap curry to look more appetizing, so used my cookie cutters on my pickled radish. Tadaaa!!!! Cute right? Bon appetit!

Sushi roll

As mentioned in my previous post, my stand mixer has RIP. I have yet to buy a new mixer, so I won't be posting any baking activities. Since I can't bake, I decide to make sushi. I love sushi and there are times I wish I can have sushi whenever I have cravings for them. Besides, it is more economical and we can choose the ingredients we want in our sushi too. We can prepare healthier form of sushi and we know that we are getting freshly prepared sushi... Bon appetit!

Croissants

Mastered my courage to bake croissants. Outcome? Sort of fail. It resembles vaguely like one though. Even if it doesn't, the title of my post already tells you the answer. Save me from further embarrassment too. *ahem* I shan't post any recipe (of course I shouldn't...) until the day comes when I bake decent croissants. And guess what? My mixer reached its end of life too. It died right after I made the dough. *rolled eyes* What a timing! This gives me a good reason to buy my dream stand mixer: KitchenAid. Yes, you heard it alright, my KitchenAid stand-mixer!!! Now, now pretty awful pics of my croissants. heehee... It was quite an adventure, very time-consuming and thankfully, they are edible with my family members being the guinea pigs. 

Cookies, cakes suit me better... mais pas pains ou croissants... Il est difficile pour faire croissants... Je pense que je vais essayer une autre fois. :)


Updated on 4 May 12: 
I didn't finish baking all the croissant dough... so I continued after work on Friday. :) 

Japanese Curry et Strawberry Jello No-bake cheesecake

Happy Easter Day! On this day, we had a potluck event at one of my friend's place. I volunteered to prepare japanese chicken curry. The others brought drinks, finger foods and tidbits.

I love japanese chicken curry. It is a fairly easy dish even for someone who does not know how to cook. At the back of the japanese curry box, they gave instructions on how to prepare the dish.

I made strawberry jello no bake cheesecake for my friends in my french class. As I was running out of time, I chilled the cheesecake in the freezer. It saved me half the time I need to get them ready. Glad they turned out fine.

These are the easter eggs I gave to my friends during the gathering on Easter Day. Yes, Kinder Joy with toy surprise!!! Yippie!!

Happy Easter Day!

Soft Japanese Cheesecake again...

J'ai fait un doux gateau au fromage de japonais sur dimanche dernier soir. J'adore ça beaucoup. Cette recette a besoin farine à gâteaux  mais je ne le pas avais dans ma cuisine. Alors, j'ai utilisé farine tout usage et maïzena pour remplaçant farine à gâteaux. Le gateau a été doux et pas très sucrè aussi. Si vous voulez cette recette, click ici; s'il vous plait.

Bon appetit!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Salut, ca fait long temps. It's been awhile since I last baked in Jan 12 for CNY. I enjoys baking for my classmates in my french class and my friends who are always game to try my sweet treats. Valentine's Day is around the corner... What are you planning for your loved ones?

Today, I baked (yes, again) shortbread butter cookies and they are all heart-shaped ones to match the Valentine's Day theme. I wanted to make cookies in the shape of gingerbread man, but due to time constraints, I decided to stick to just heart-shaped cookie cutter. And also added some heart-shaped sprinkles. For recipe of this, please click here.

It's always sweet to receive handmade gifts especially sweet treats. Remember, Valentine's Day is a day for friends too, not just lovers. Happy Valentine's Day!! :)))

Pineapple Tarts encore!!!

Bonjour! Hello! 您好!

It's been a long time. I promised I will bake something but I didn't. Je suis tres tres desolee. I went to Seoul during the last week of December in 2011 with my mum and my friend. It was quite a last min decision. I always love winter holidays but it was so cold that my mum fell sick on her first day in Korea. Anti-climax, yeah? She slept in while my friend and myself went out shopping and explored our surroundings (for the first day only). We love shopping in Korea; the skincare, hair accessories, earrings, clothes and food. Practically everything!!!!

 Kimchi fried rice is awesome! I shall try cooking some at home next time.

 BBQ pork can never go wrong... Best in Korea!! Love the korean side dishes too...

Spicy tofu seafood soup - my favourite! 

 Korea noodles are yummy too. Bought some back. Gonna get a carton back next time.

Yes, they are all mine! I love hair accessories alot especially hairbands.

Yummy ricecakes and pan-fried dumplings...

Ok, back to pineapple tarts (PT). Come 22 Jan 11, it will be Chinese New Year. Pineapple tarts are favourites among asians. I always believe in using the best quality butter when I bake cookies, cakes etc. And my favourite brand is always Lurpak but it is too pricey. I only used it when I make shortbread cookies. I decided to try other brands of butter that are more affordable and second or third best to my Lurpak. Yes, my lurpak. *winkz* For this CNY, I bought President, Golden Churn, Lurpak, SCS. I know I may sound biased. Lurpak is a sure win for having the best buttery smell. I tried GC, it pales in comparision for buttery smell. When I bake brownies, GC is my only choice. Next, I tried SCS, it gives out a decent buttery smell and I liked the texture of the pastry dough. For the pastry dough for my pineapple tarts which I baked in the past, only Lurpak and President don't fail me. For recipe, please click here.

Happy Chinese New Year wherever you are!!!